The Words Unsaid
by NightChild16
Summary: Now that I've seen the finale, this is a brief one-shot of Runya and Merlin after the events of the final episode. SPOILERS if you have yet to see the last season of the show, especially the finale.


Rúnya stared hard at the fire. Aurora rested fast asleep in her arms, her angelic face at peace as she slept. Yet even her daughter could not fill the tear that had been shredded through the young queen's heart. Tears leaked from her eyes as they had for two days now, ever since the riders had brought her the news she had been dreading for months. Her chest felt as if someone were squeezing her heart, tightening their grip as it grew closer and closer to collapse. She hadn't slept in all that time; dreams only brought back the imagines of Morgana's face. Had she been a mortal woman, she wouldn't have heard the near silent, almost inaudible sound of the door opening.

"_You…._" She hissed, teeth grinding together. "You must have a death wish."

Had her daughter not been in her arms, Rúnya would have lunged forward and attacked. She would have thrown everything she had at the sorcerer, every fiber of anger, grief and hatred knitted together would have been enough to level Albion to ashes. She rose slowly and turned to face him. "I trusted you!" She hissed. "I…" Rúnya choked on her own words, too overcome to continue. "You killed her." Her eyes glowed, like molten gold. "I'll kill you."

For a brief moment, Merlin felt true fear flutter through his stomach. Rúnya Arwen was nowhere near his level of power, but unhinged like this she could do considerable damage. "She left me no choice." He took a tentative step forward. "Please, I know how you felt about her, but Morgana had crossed the point of no return."

"Thanks to _you_!" Behind her, the fire roared to life. An angry, primeval force: the heat scorched Merlin even from where he stood several steps away, he feared that his clothes were about to burst into flames. The look in Rúnya's eyes…the same hurt and confusion and betrayal he had gazed into when he had poisoned Morgana…it was once more glaring back at him. The queen's voice cracked when she spoke. "You took my last link to the past." She accused. "My mother…my sister…Morgana…they've all been stolen from me now." Her eyes squeezed to together in a vain attempt to dam her tears. "I could have saved her." She whispered.

Aurora stirred, awoken by the sobs that shuddered silently through her mother's chest. Her tiny face scrunched and she began to wail. Rúnya opened her eyes and rocked her baby gently to try and calm her back to sleep. "It's alright little one," She cooed, "the bad man won't hurt you. I'll kill him long before he has that chance."

"I'd never…" Merlin began but a sharp look from Rúnya was as good as any threat and so he clamped his mouth shut. How many broken promises had passed between them? How many lies had they whispered to one another, trusting one another despite being on different sides in the same war? Months ago, Rúnya had made it clear the when the war horn finally blew whose banner would be flying about her gates. But when Merlin looked into to her eyes, he saw just how deeply this last betrayal had cut her. Rúnya's grief, raw and bleeding was now laid out at his feet. "I loved her once." He said before he could stop them from escaping the end of his tongue. But once they were there, out in the open between them, he could not call them back, nor did he want to. He had never before uttered them out loud and now the sound of them echoing in his ears brought the pain he had locked out stampeding in to his chest at last. "I loved her." He said again. His eyes began to itch, and the young warlock realized that he was crying.

"I did too." Rúnya reminded him. "I felt….her die." Her voice was broken, words choppy. Rúnya touched her chest, where beneath the fabric of her robes an old wound marked the last time she had ever seen Morgana alive. "She saved our lives: she sacrificed the chance to conquer you all to bring me back." Rúnya's blue-green eyes were ablaze. "I felt the blade tear through her body, I felt her life flee her mortal flesh as her last breath escaped her lips." The heat grew stronger. "I carry the knowledge of her last thoughts, the last words to cross unspoken through her mind."

Merlin felt the intensity of the heat start to claw at his throat. Rúnya and her child of course seemed unaffected by the ever rising temperature. Merlin refused to wipe away the sweat that had starting to sheen his brow. He wouldn't show her just how strongly her anger was affecting him. He remembered Morgana's eyes, the way something had flashed through them before they had gone still. "She's at peace now." He mumbled, not knowing what else he could say to Rúnya. "The woman she once was…she is at peace with those she loves."

"You've wept for Arthur," Rúnya began, "but the pain has been assuaged by the fact that you know he will rise again, that your king will one day be reborn to you. Morgana isn't coming back." Rúnya looked at him with the same wounded gaze she had given him when she had been a child. "Her life will never be remembered like Arthur's….only we will know the truth: you killed her twice Merlin. You killed the woman you loved, and then you killed the woman she became afterwards." She looked down at Aurora. "My child and I…we will never let you kill her this third time." Her voice tightened. "So long as there is fire, I will be here Merlin, same as you. A voice in the wind, the story that takes form for brief moments in the swirl of smoke before it disappears back into the world….one day, my mortal flesh will die, but do not doubt for a moment I will cease my crusade." She smiled. "One day, the fire will choose my child as it has chosen my bloodline since our origins. I believe with all my heart, it will be Morgana who will watch over my girl, her magic that will protect her."

"Does it mean nothing to you that magic can now be practiced throughout the realms without any fear?" Merlin pressed. "Our people are _free_."

"We once dreamed of this day…you…me…Morgana. Now, it's just you and I alone to enjoy it." She felt her eyes watering again, this time with aggressive vigor. "Tell me Merlin, did you even feel anything when you did it? Did you for one moment watch the life leave her and take pause to regret all you did to her?"

"Every moment."

They stared at one another for a long while.

"I saw the young woman I once knew: so full of love…compassion…goodness. I see her face every night, the look she gave me as the poison took effect, the hurt….I see those eyes, so full of hatred that haunted my every step in Camelot, knowing that her heart was corrupted…knowing maybe I could have…" Merlin choked off. "Remembering how I had daydreamed of the world we could have had together. The life we could have made…" He shook his head. "It was always impossible: it was our destiny." The words spilled out faster than the tears. "You were the last person in the world how still had a piece of the old Morgana. You were the one she had sheltered that last remnant for." Before either knew what was happening, Merlin had dropped to his knees. "I'm sorry Rúnya." He wasn't just begging for her to accept his apology, he was begging her forgiveness. "I never….I never wanted this."

Rúnya let the memory wash over her, the hidden knowledge she carried in her heart: when the blade had pierced her, when she felt her life slipping away Morgana…the _real_ Morgana had briefly flashed through the priestess' eyes. The woman she used to be, the one who would have sacrificed her life and all she owned to save those she called 'friend' had been staring back into Merlin's eyes. And she had been silently thanking him with her final flickers to consciousness.

He had set her free.


End file.
